The Trump administration ended an airport surveillance program on Thursday that it said had been “weaponized” by the Biden administration.
The Department of Homeland Security said that it was closing down the Quiet Skies program because it had been used for political purposes and had not stopped any terrorist attacks. The Quiet Skies program was an initiative run by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that flagged fliers deemed by intelligence officials to “pose an elevated security risk” for “enhanced screening” and potential observation by federal Air Marshals.
“It is clear that the Quiet Skies program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration — weaponized against its political foes and exploited to benefit their well-heeled friends. I am calling for a Congressional investigation to unearth further corruption at the expense of the American people and the undermining of US national security,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
“TSA’s critical aviation and security vetting functions will be maintained, and the Trump Administration will return TSA to its true mission of being laser-focused on the safety and security of the traveling public. This includes restoring the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans,” she added.
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The program costs $200 million per year and has stopped zero terrorist attacks since its inception in 2010, according to Homeland Security.
Noem said that enhanced Quiet Skies screening was wrongly placed on Biden administration critic Tulsi Gabbard, who is now the Director of National Intelligence, while she was campaigning for President Donald Trump. She added that preferential treatment was given to the husband of a Democratic senator.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security claimed that William Shaheen, the husband of New Hampshire Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, was given a blanket exemption from Quiet Skies after he was flagged for traveling “with a Known or Suspected Terrorist on three occasions.” The exception was granted after Senator Shaheen lobbied the federal government for her husband’s removal from the Quiet Skies list, according to the department.
Shaheen has disputed those claims, saying that she was unaware that her husband was ever flagged as a security risk by the Quiet Skies program.
“Senator Shaheen contacted the Transportation Security Administration after her husband was subjected to several extensive, invasive and degrading searches at airport checkpoints,” her office said. “Senator Shaheen sought to understand the nature and cause of these searches. Any suggestion that the senator’s husband was supposedly included on a Quiet Skies list is news to her and had never been raised before yesterday, nor was she aware of any action taken following her call to remove him from such a list.”
Noem called for Congress to open up an investigation into Quiet Skies in addition to her department’s internal probe.
